Long-term impacts of college sexual assaults on women survivors' educational and career attainments

ABSTRACT

Objective: To examine the well-documented mental and physical health problems suffered by undergraduate women sexually assaulted while on campus with an exploration of how the trauma impacts a survivor's lifetime education trajectory and career attainment. Participants: In November and December 2015, researchers recruited US participants using an online crowdsourcing tool and a Listserv for sexual violence prevention and response professionals. Methods: Of 316 women who completed initial screening, 89 qualified to complete a Qualtrics survey. Eighty-one participants completed the online survey, and 32 participated in phone interviews. Results: Ninety-one percent of the participants reported health problems related to the assault that they attributed to difficulties they faced in their attainment of their education and career goals. Conclusions: The findings suggest the importance of simultaneously examining the effects of human capital losses and mental and physical health problems attributed to the costly public health problem of campus sexual assault.

KEYWORDS:

• Campus sexual assault
• educational attainment
• human capital loss
• mental health
• physical health

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Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of the United States and received approval from the University of New Hampshire Internal Review Board.

Funding

No funding was used to support this research and/or the preparation of the manuscript.